a warm welcome

Today was my first day back at school. And what a wonderful way to start off the school year!

We started off the day with breakfast. It was actually a pretty poor showing for breakfast, but I work in a school and it was free so that says a lot right there. Muffins and cheese. Fruit? Nowhere to be seen. At my old school we got free fruit everyday, so I was a little confused at the lack of even apples and oranges but maybe they think juice AND fruit is redundant.

Staff meeting. It was kept pretty short. One AP likes to ramble... I'm sure people will make some attempt to keep him in line. The best part? No mass!! This gave me an extra hour to myself to do stuff I actually wanted to do. Do I feel deprived in any way spiritually or otherwise? Nope. Excellent.

I met with my mentor so she could answer some questions for me. She took me to get school supplies, and somehow I scored a stapler. I know this sounds stupid, but in the world of teaching staplers and holepunchers are precious things. She also showed me a cupboard full of resources that had been left by teachers previous. Excellent if I ever have 8 hours to kill to go through it all...

More working. Then lunch will my mentor and some of her friends on staff - good people. Taco Time was mediocre as a choice of venues, but considering it was the only lunch offer I had... And as mediocre as my buried was, I do love mexi-fries. Mmmm.

After lunch we had a short "new to the building" meeting. Again kept short. The attendance policy seems straightforward, nothing else too important was said. Followed by a meeting to show all the staff how to use the new attendance program. It's called easy attendance for a reason - it's crazy easy. Somehow there always seem to be several people who get confused when that should be impossible. Now I understand that I understand computers and the programs that run on them more than the average teacher. However, when the lady says "Then you'll click on Add" there should not be an outcry from the room that she's going too fast. It's a button. Click it. How in the world did you get lost and/or confused? Argh.

Off to work on things of my choosing. My neighbour came over to introduce himself, I chatted with a couple of teachers who taught me. Mr. D remembers most of us as "kids who could do English but just didn't really like it." I laughed, cause it's true and it's funny he remembers that 8 years later. Oh ya, and Rach, the staff are WAY to up to date on your family (though Mr. D is also very happy Kels got her shit together, he said he always questioned when she would).

A quick trip to see the principal about my extra curr. It was discussed way back in May that they'd be needing another female SRC advisor. While Human Rights was my first choice, SRC was definitely second. Interestingly enough, there was talk of the Human Rights club needing an advisor at the Staff Meeting... I approached the principal hoping to maybe share Human Rights with someone seeing as I thought I also had to do SRC. Looks like the HR group has a new advisor. It's me! Seriously, I couldn't have wound up with a better extra curr. Working with an engaged group of young people on things of their choosing? Hello. AND I don't have to do SRC. There is so much love going on for me it's crazy. It almost feels like some kind of crazy trap. Two weeks from now all hell is going to break loose or something. Til then though, it's all kittens and rainbows.

Well, I do believe it's time for a free BBQ at my principals house. People were calling this the dark side?